FIVE Halton schools have been placed on a Government action list because they have a hard core of 'persistent truants'.

The borough provides a third of the 15 schools in the Merseyside area placed on a list of shame.

The Heath School, Halton High, Grange Comprehensive in Runcorn, and Saints Peter and Paul Catholic High and Fairfield High, both Widnes, are included on the list.

The schools have been ordered to place pupils who regularly skip lessons on a 'fast tract to attendance' scheme and assign them a truancy officer.

The officer will draw up an action plan to improve attendance with support offered to tackle issues such as drugs, mental health or poor parenting skills.

However, if the child's attendance does not improve within three months, their parents can be hauled into court with the threat of a fine of up to £2,500 or 12 weeks in prison.

Councils also have powers to issue penalty notices to force parents to sign binding contracts pledging improvements in school attendance.

A Halton Borough Council spokesman said: 'We encourage our schools to be vigilant about absence and not to authorise absence unless it is clearly accounted for by legitimate, unavoidable reasons.

'Halton has recognised improving school attendance as one of the nine key priorities of the newly-formed Children and Young People's Directorate and all our schools are engaged in a strategy to address absence from school.

The council says attendance improved in three quarters of the borough's secondary schools in the last year.

Truancy sweeps have been used to round up gangs of kids who skip school to hang around shopping centres rather than attend school.